It is known to provide so-called “femto cells” within macro cells of a wireless communications network. Such femto cells are typically provided where the communications coverage provided by the macro cell is poor or where a user wishes to use an alternative communications link provided locally, rather than utilising the communications link provided by the macro cell, to communicate with a core network. Such a situation might arise where, for example, a user has a pre-existing Internet or other communications link at home or in an office and the user wishes to utilise that link in preference to that provided by a macro cell network provider to communicate with the core network.
Accordingly, it is known to provide a femto base station which generates a femto cell in its vicinity, with which user equipment may communicate in preference to communicating with a base station of the macro cell. To enable the user equipment to communicate with the femto base station, omnidirectional broadcast channel beams are typically formed and, once communication between user equipment and the femto base station has been established, data channel beams are formed to enable data transmission to occur.
However, whilst the generation of femto cells enables improved communication between user equipment and the core network to occur, the proliferation of femto cells can cause undesirable consequences.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved technique for generating a femto cell.